Amit Shah rally violence: Bengal BJP leader Rahul Sinha tells workers to 'arm themselves'; governor seeks report from Mamata

BJP national secretary and West Bengal leader Rahul Sinha on Wednesday asked party supporters and workers to come armed with sticks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in the state on 2 February. He made the statement in the aftermath of violence near the venue of BJP chief Amit Shah’s rally at Kanthi in East Midnapore district on Tuesday. Speaking to News18, Sinha said, “Those in the other states don’t know how bad the situation is in Bengal. When the BJP has rallies, Mamata Banerjee closes down shops so that BJP workers cannot drink tea and have no access to water. To protect themselves, our _karyakarta_s need to arm themselves with sticks when they come to future BJP rallies.” Bengal BJP workers are set to hold protest rallies across the state on Wednesday, Times Now reported. [caption id=“attachment_5991631” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A bus on which BJP supporters had travelled to the rally venue at Kanthi in East Midnapur was pelted with stones. ANI[/caption] Meanwhile, Governor of West Bengal Keshari Nath Tripathi  spoke to the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the violence at Shah’s rally. He has sought a report on the matter from the West Bengal government, News18 quoted sources as saying. On Tuesday, the BJP had alleged that buses in which party workers were returning from Shah’s rally were vandalised and set on fire allegedly by Trinamool Congress (TMC) activists. The TMC, on the other hand, claimed that BJP workers had attacked a local party office in Kanthi and vandalised it . Home Minister Rajnath Singh had  called Mamata on Tuesday and expressed serious concern, asking that those who indulged in violence be booked. News18 reported that Rajnath had also called the Bengal governor on Tuesday night. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said on Times Now that the state government had asked the owner of the land adjoining Shah’s rally venue to lodge a complaint against the BJP alleging that he had been unable to use the field for agriculture. “The additional district magistrate posted there, who wanted to perform his duty, was transferred the day before,” Ghosh claimed, adding that under Mamata Banerjee, “Bengal had become a Pakistan”.

#WATCH West Bengal: Vehicles parked near Amit Shah's rally venue in East Midnapore, vandalized. BJP's Rahul Sinha has alleged that TMC is behind the attack. pic.twitter.com/N5lVGHjNT3

— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2019

Earlier in the week, the BJP had shifted the venue of Modi’s rally in North 24 Parganas district’s Thakurnaga, purportedly after the TMC booked their decided venue for week-long religious festivities. The BJP, however, cited security concerns as having been behind the decision to shift the rally to a nearby ground, reported PTI.

Shah, at his Kanthi rally on Tuesday, demanded that Mamata clear her stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, while accusing that her government welcomes infiltrators but has no place in the state for refugees .